As the Islamic State's (IS/ISIS) territory in Syria shrinks to a final pocket of small villages in Deir al-Zour, many of its Western members are coming out of the woodwork: Fighters, wives, and media workers from America, Canada, Germany, the UK, and elsewhere. Some captured or surrendered, others escaped—some pleading for forgiveness and better lives for their children, others expressing little remorse.

On Wednesday, November 28, Austrian Islamic State (IS/ISIS) fighter Mohamed Mahmoud, known by the alias “Abu Usama al-Gharib,” was announced dead, ending the dark saga of a lifelong ladder-climb to the top of the global jihadi community—and ultimate fall.

In August, I wrote an analysis on an increasingly evident aim by the Islamic State (ISIS) “to establish a more substantial base in the Philippines.” My assessment was based on recent events in the country, the most notable of which being the July 31 suicide bombing by Moroccan fighter “Abu Kathir al-Maghrebi” on Basilan island, which ISIS claimed. The attack was a landmark event for the Philippines: for the first time, a foreigner fighter from outside of the Southeast Asia region had been attributed to an attack in the Philippines—the first suicide operation there, at that.

During the last year, the Islamic State’s (ISIS) presence in the Philippines has fallen into the emerging narrative of the group’s defeat. Filipino forces ended ISIS’ months-long siege on the city of Marawi in October of 2017, just three months after the group’s loss of Mosul and roughly a week after its loss of Raqqah. From here, the comforting narrative sold itself: the mess of ISIS in the Philippines, like in other countries, was finally being cleaned up.

On February 27, pro-al-Qaeda (AQ) Telegram channels began distributing a statement from a group calling itself “Hurras al-Deen” (“Guardians of the Religion”). In its inaugural message, the group demanded action regarding besieged Eastern Ghouta, chiding Muslims for “eating and drinking and living joyfully” during such humanitarian atrocities. It promised Muslims in Ghouta:

…we shall do the best of our efforts to relieve your siege or to stab your oppressor in the waist to paralyze him or distract him from you, for we give our necks to save yours and our blood to save your blood.